Mania From Italy

 

(imdb)

MANIA-1974-A woman named Lisa (Eva Spadaro) drives recklessly in a car with a man who says she is obsessed with Bercht, her dead husband. They seem to be menaced by a driver less car. She admits she let her scientist husband burn to death in a fire in his lab. She has a fit when her housekeeper accepts a package from a man. Then her psychiatrist tells her the only way to overcome her fear is to return to the villa where hubby died. Once there, they meet the husband's twin brother, a mean guy with a scarred face in a wheelchair with a mute servant girl. Lisa's housekeeper acts strangely suspicious, and Lisa seems to be losing her mind…or is she? 

Pretty lame, confused, tedious mess from Italy, directed by Renato Polselli (THE VAMPIRE AND THE BALLERINA (1960)).

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3 By Curtis

 

 (imdb)

TRILOGY OF TERROR-1975-Very good TV horror anthology directed by Dan Curtis. In the first story “Julie” (written by William F. Nolan & Richard Matheson), Chad (Robert Burton), a college jerk becomes obsessed with nerdy teacher Julie (Karen Black). He drugs her, takes her to a hotel, takes pictures of her and rapes her. Then he blackmails her and he and his friends use her (not shown, only implied). But in the twist ending he finds out she's not what he thinks she is....

In the second “Millicent & Therese” (written by Nolan), Millicent (Black) complains about her sister Therese (also Black), being evil, practicing witchcraft and seducing men. She warns Therese's boyfriend (John Karlen) about her but he ignores it. Then Therese tries to seduce their doctor (George Gaynes). Millicent decides to do away with her sister using her own witchcraft. This story is ok but the ending is fairly guessable.

In the third and most famous episode “Amelia” (written by Matheson), Amelia, a woman with mother problems buys a weird Zuni fetish doll for her anthropologist boyfriend. After a fight with her mother, she breaks her date and is then terrorized by the evil looking doll that has big teeth and makes strange noises. 

Once again director Curtis shows that just because it's made for TV, horror stories can still be good.

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Seeing Double

 

 (TMDB) 

THE DARK MIRROR-1946-Police Lt. Stevenson (Thomas Mitchell) investigates a murder. Olivia de Havilland plays twin sisters Terry and Ruth. One of them may be a murderer. Stevenson asks twin expert psychiatrist Dr. Elliot (Lew Ayres) to help distinguish which one is a murderer. Though questions and ink blots the shrink determines one of them is insane. Richard Long (in his third role after Orson Welles' THE STRANGER) has a small role. This is nice but overlooked little psychological film noir directed by Robert Siodmak (he made THE KILLERS the same year) It has an excellent dual performance by de Havilland and good use of trick photography.

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Sheriff Billy The Kid

 

 (wikipedia)

SHERIFF OF SAGE VALLEY-1942-Billy the Kid (Buster Crabbe) and his two cohorts Fuzzy (Al St. John) and Jeff (Dave O'Brien; REEFER MADNESS; CAPTAIN MIDNIGHT) become the law in Sage Valley when they save a stagecoach from being robbed and the sheriff is murdered. They take on Sloane (Charles King), who runs the local crooked casino and his gang but the real boss is Kansas Ed, Billy's twin brother (also Crabbe) who kidnaps Billy and impersonates him for a while. Billy's buddies save him and they stop Kansas but are almost hanged anyway. 

This PRC western quickie was directed by...who else but the speed demon himself Sam Newfield using his frequent alias, Sherman Scott. His brother Sigmund Neufeld produced. According to my (not so reliable) calculations Buster Crabbe played a character called Billy the Kid in 36 westerns!

Read about the real outlaw: Billy the Kid | Biography, Death, & Facts | Britannica

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Scissors and Stone

 

 (imdb)

SCISSORS-1991-Weird tale about a repressed young woman Angie (Sharon Stone) who makes dolls. After she stabs a would-be rapist, her psychiatrist Dr. Carter (Ronny Cox) tells her she's hiding a repressed memory from her childhood. Her suspicious acting neighbor Alex (Steve Railsback) tries to help her. He has a wheelchair bound painter twin brother (also Railsback) who's only pretending to be a cripple. After another encounter in a movie theater and almost having sex with Alex, Angie becomes trapped in a high rise apartment. From things in the apartment including a myna bird and a corpse it's obvious it's someone's plot to drive her crazy. Meanwhile the brothers argue over where she is. It turns out it's a plan by her insane cuckold shrink to kill his wife's (Michelle Phillips) lover. Although Angie appears to lose her mind she turns the tables on the shrink and meets up with Alex. 

This was the only theatrical full length movie director Frank De Felitta made. As a screenwriter he adapted both his novels “Audrey Rose” and “The Entity” to the big screen and also wrote George C. Scott's controversial THE SAVAGE IS LOOSE (1974). He also directed an above average made for TV horror film NIGHT OF THE SCARECROW (1981). 

SCISSORS is based on a short story that was first done on an anthology show in the 1950's and directed by Ida Lupino.

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A Bull In A Maze

 

THE MINOTAUR, THE WILD BEAST OF CRETE-1960-The people of Crete sacrifice young women to the title monster who lives in a labyrinth. On her deathbed the Queen reveals to her husband the King and their daughter, Fedra (Rosanna Schiaffino), that she had another daughter Arianna, Fedra's twin who she hid in another city. Jealous Fedra orders her sister's death. Soldiers find her in a village but before they can act, Theseus (two time US Olympic gold medal decathlon winner Bob Mattias) and his pal Demetro (Rick Battaglia) show up and save her. After much hi-jinx, Arianna (also played by Schiaffino) winds up impersonating her sister and she and Theseus go to the labyrinth where The Minotaur (a man with the head of a bull) and Theseus have a fight. He burns out the creature's eyes and then hits it on the head with a rock. I felt sorry for the monster. 

Paul Muller (later in NIGHTMARE CASTLE) and Alberto Lupo (in ATOM AGE VAMPIRE the same year) are in it too. This Italian production was directed by Silvio Amadio.

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It's Snowing and I Have To Shovel...

....So this is the best I can do.....




MAN WITH A GUN-1994-Micheal Madsen stars as a hitman who narrates part of the story. He talks about "The Kingdom" and says: "The good die young but the bad die ugly". He works for crooked land developer Gary Busey who wants Madsen to kill his wife (Betty Boop voiced Jennifer Tilley) who is screwing up his transactions. "If you can kill a rattlesnake, you can kill my wife".

Trouble is Madsen and Tilley are already having an affair. Fortunately Tilley has a twin sister who Madsen kidnaps and plans on killing instead. Of course he winds up falling in love with her. Blah, blah, blah. Robert Loggia plays a mob boss.

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